Fitness Rules to Break this Week...Cut Calories and Do Hours of Cardio to lose Body fat (Part 1)

Warning:  These next few posts will require you to throw out everything conventional wisdom, social media, and the mainstream fitness/marketing media tells you about fat loss.

I knew I could not do this one in a single post and it looks like I'm going to be camped out here for a while, but I'm passionate about this issue.

I'm sick of listening to trainers tell their clients to eat 1000 calories (or some other arbitrary number they throw out like 1200) and tell them to do an hour of cardio a day and they will lose weight in some really fast time frame.

People may  lose weight for a minute, rebound (regain the weight plus some), and then have to start all over from a higher set point.

DRASTICALLY CUTTING CALORIES + HOURS OF CARDIO DOESN"T WORK FOR LONG TERM FAT LOSS AND YET PEOPLE ARE STILL DOING THIS!

Are you with me?

When I became a trainer about 10 years ago, they would have us tell clients Eat less, move more.  That is the key to WEIGHT LOSS and all you need to do to lose weight. It is the law of thermodynamics.  It is a LAW...and you can't argue with it.

Got it.

Never mind genetics, dieting history, biochemistry, age, gender, etc.  Eat less/Move More.  Simple

Were they right?  Yes.  If you want WEIGHT LOSS, follow that rule.  Cut your calories  low and do hours of exercise is what that phrase translated into for most people.

Work with me here.  I'm going to use MYSELF as an example

I'm eating less and moving more, but I am gaining body fat.

I am not one of the genetically gifted.  My body loves to hold on to body fat and so I work with what I've got.  It's all about being the best version of me.

Gaining Weight in spite of...

I am a group fitness instructor and I enjoy teaching classes. I have had a revelation about group fitness and its place in the exercise realm, but that's another post.  

From about 2006-2011, I taught between 5 - 10 classes a week in addition to working out on my own lots of running/treadmill and strength training.  I even did half marathons during this time, so I was definitely moving more.

I was also gaining weight and was baffled as to why.  Hello!  I'm working out like crazy and my diet isn't terrible.  I certainly wasn't eating McDonald's or horrible food, but I was definitely hungry from all the extra activity so I ate good whole foods.

During this time from about 2006-2009, I was unhappy about gaining so much weight.  I think from about 2006-2008 I gained about 30-35 pounds.  I went on diets that I crafted for myself.  I never went below 1500 calories, but I would cut calories.  I would lose 5-10 lbs and then get stuck.  I'd try to get in an extra workout or maybe cut out bread or some other food group hoping that the scale would move.  Sometimes it would, but then it would go back to the higher number.

I did have an entire life meltdown in 2008 and I gained about 15 pounds during that time.  I was really disappointed in how I had let everything go because I had given up and I let everything go including my passion for health and fitness.

After deciding that my life wasn't over,and I did not need to give up on life, I admit that I cleaned things up in 2009 and got back into eating and training the way I should have been and dropped about 20 pounds on my own. 

Fast forward to 2012 and I decide to sign up for personal training.  I wanted to eventually compete in a figure competition so I knew that I needed help.

During this time I also decided to stop teaching so many classes and stuck with two formats: Bodypump and Cycle.  I cut down to about 4 classes a week  As I began to learn more about adrenal fatigue overtraining, and chunky aerobics instructor syndrome I cut down my classes even further.

I reduced my teaching schedule went down to teaching about twice a week and both those classes were Bodypump classes.

With personal training in the span of a year I would say I lost about 10-12 lbs scale weight and the body fat drops (which is what is the key) was even more significant.  My body composition totally changed and I ate mostly the same foods I ate on my own diets, but I wasn't AS hungry so I didn't eat as much.

In 2013 I did not teach at all and I was leaning down even more.

What gives?  Turns out that wasn't a novelty at all.

World Renowned Charles Poliquin has a term for it:  Chunky Aerobics Instructor Syndrome

Chunky Aerobics Instructor Syndrome

What is Chunky Aerobics Instructor Syndrome

Poliquin found that many Group Fitness Instructors have high amounts of body fat despite exercising up to three hours a day.  Poliquin's theory is that the body adapts easily to cardio training so you may be performing 3 hours of cardio but soon your body becomes efficient at the exercise and thus enters the law of diminishing returns.

In other words: Less bang for your buck.  Let's say you just started a fitness program and  during an hour long cardio session, you burn 300 calories.  Well in about 3 months that number will be reduced because your body has ADAPTED to that training.

Anecdotally I can say that I have seen the same amongst instructors and also experienced it myself.  It was only after I started cutting down the cardio work (through group fitness classes and on my own) that I started noticing changes.  I was lifting more and I was less hungry.  In 2013, I was lucky if I did cardio 2x per week and that's saying something from a reformed cardio junkie.  I was scared that if I didn't do cardio, I would get fat.

Well I was gaining fat and doing tons of cardio, so may as well try the opposite and guess what?  I got leaner than I had been in years.  My cardio was mostly cardio strength metabolic workouts and the occasional run or spin class if I felt like it.

In training for the fitness competition, my coach does not have me doing 2 hours of cardio per day.  All that will happen is that my body will adapt and become efficient making it harder to lose weight.  I do cardio for about 30 minutes a session every day and I also do circuit training with weights to keep my metabolism humming.

Time for a perspective change

The way the fitness industry teaches clients about fat loss is wrong and why people end up getting frustrated with the entire process.  They cut calories too low, do their endless hours of cardio and lift 5lb weights, lose weight, get hungry, eat, rebound, and start all over again only now their metabolism has slowed down, they've raised their set point, and at this point many give up and continue to gain weight.

It's time for a perspective change and several things need to happen.

1. People need to be realistic about how long fat loss takes and stop looking at these silly social media "transformations" of people who took BooBoo the fool's shake and went to hardcore bootcamp and lost 50 lbs in 3 days.

2. People need to stop chasing numbers on a scale and be concerned about your body composition.  Much of these "Weight loss" miracles are water, glycogen, and even worse...muscle loss. 

3.  Learn how to eat as much as possible and be comfortable with it.  Yes you NEED to eat (ladies that's for you)

4.  Get off the endless cardio train and pick up some (challenging) weights

5.  Stop with the 1200 calorie nonsense or other arbitrary numbers that trainers are throwing out there and eat as much as possible without gaining fat (I feel like I am going to have to drive this point home)

Challenging Conventional Wisdom

I once read a quote that said that people like conventional wisdom because it makes them feel better when what they are doing isn't working.

If you're tired of starting the fat loss process over and over again, then it's time to stop listening to these ads (which are designed to take your money), stop with the starvation diets, quit the ineffective low intensity cardio for an hour/lifting 2lb weights for "toning", and begin to get real that this process is going to take TIME and your methods need to be SUSTAINABLE.

Time to stop Shooting yourself in the foot

Get ready for this...I'm going to be here for a while!